In today's podcast we tackle a vital but too often overlooked area of infrastructure delivery namely commissioning – the art and science of preparing and taking assets into service ready to deliver the outcomes required from the investment.

It is indeed a vital activity for every infrastructure professional to be aware of. For every asset owner and project sponsor for that matter. And while the results of getting commissioning right are so often unnoticed, the impact of getting it wrong can be commercially, socially, environmentally and politically disastrous.

So often fantastic infrastructure projects fall at the final hurdle by either opening late, having to close immediately after opening for retrofit and repair, fail to deliver outcomes to expectation, or see costs spiral as teams rally and race to meet the commercial promises of opening dates.

In the UK we might think about delays to the opening of the Jubilee Line Extension and Crossrail projects, West Coast Mainline, baggage handling problems on Heathrow Terminal Five, signalling and train power issues on the Channel Tunnel Rail link - the list goes on.

Usually the problem simply comes down to a lack of thought, time, investment and prioritisation for the commissioning process – those vital steps that make the assets ready for operation.

It doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, according to the Industrial Commissioning Association, a relatively new organisation devoted to improving the quality and performance of commissioning across infrastructure, industrial and process sectors, the more people working on projects understand the importance of commissioning and the value it provides, the more successful projects will be in meeting cost, schedule, and quality objectives.

So let’s here more about this very attractive proposition and find out about the opportunities and what’s holding us back by welcoming Paul Turner, chief executive of the Industrial Commissioning Association who is driving the new organisation forward after a career spent wrestling with commissioning around the world.

Resources
Industrial Commissioning Association website
Project Commissioning - Start With the End in Mind report
Global Commissioning Standard
How Big Things Get Done

In today's podcast we reflect on last year’s HS2 north project cancellation and, one year one, explore what lessons might be learnt for future major project delivery as we move into the Starmer government era.

Now, I have been writing about infrastructure projects for 30 years and it seems that when you look back, one consistent theme constantly crops up – the delivery of major infrastructure projects is troublesome to say the least. As an industry we continuously over-promise when it comes to budgets and programme and under-deliver when it comes to social, economic and environmental outcomes.

I’m thinking Jubilee Line Extension, Heathrow T5, Channel Rail Link, Crossrail – all fantastic assets today, but the delivery process has left the industry’s reputation in the eyes of the public and politicians in tatters.

In fact, according to book “How Big Things Get Done” by Flyvbjerg and Gadner, 99.5% of major projects worldwide are over budget, over time and fail to deliver their expected benefits.

So when then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced to the Conservative Party Conference in October 2023 that phase 2 of the HS2 project beyond the West Midlands would be cancelled and replaced with “Network North”, a £36bn hastily thrown together hotch potch of transport projects, it was hardly a surprise.

HS2, said Sunak. “is a project whose costs have more than doubled, which has been repeatedly delayed and it is not scheduled to reach Manchester for almost two decades… … and for which the economic case has massively weakened with the changes to business travel post Covid.”

Much disappointment and derision followed. HS2 will now run only from London to Birmingham, with the Oak Common to Euston link on hold until a private sector backed solution can be found. The industry’s reputation for delivery sent once again into the bin.

I say again because this is not the first example of politically driven descoping as politicians run out of patience waiting for a ribbon to cut. Think the Channel Tunnel in the 1970s, the Crossrail project in the late 1980s, the Advanced Passenger Train in the 1990s, numerous tram projects in the noughties. Of course many of these projects eventually restarted and reaped benefits beyond expectation..

The question is why do they seem to have such troubled births? It warrants deeper discussion. It is therefore my pleasure to welcome Kay Hughes, former HS2 design director and Andy Murray, executive director at the Major Projects Association who have just jointly authored a new report looking specifically at what the major projects sector can learn from this recent HS2 cancellation experience.

Resources
-MPA report: "Cancellation of major projects: Perspectives on rethinking the approach to major projects inspired from HS2 Phase 2 lessons"
-MPA Prestige Lecture 2024: The Politics of Projects: Professor Ben Ansell
-HS2 North Cancellation announcement
-Network North
-How Big Things Get Done

In today's podcast we talk about housing – specifically what needs to happen to ensure that the construction sector is set to meet the new government’s ambitious target of building 1.5 million new homes over the next five years.

There is no question that when we look back at the past performance of housebuilding in the UK, we have some way to go to meet this 300,000+ new homes a year target.

The reality is that new house building numbers have rarely nudged over 200,000 a year in the last 40 years. That was, of course the point in time that local authority housing investment really dried up, handing the task largely over to the private sector and market forces.

There are signs that the new government wants this to change. The recent announcement by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner on planning and housing targets underlined a clear ambition to challenge and support local authorities.

But as many have already pointed out, there is no silver bullet to solving the housing crisis. When it comes to delivering on these housing targets, the nation and the construction industry still faces a rake of challenges beyond removing the planning obstacles that the government has initially – and probably rightly targeted.

With this week seeing publication of the long awaited Moore-Bick report into the 2017 Grenfell fire, which will be another sobering moment for construction.

It will, I am sure, reinforce the need to transform the sector away from low cost, low quality model highlighted by Dame Judith Hackett’s 2018 report into building standards that followed the fire.

Of course, we have been talking about these challenges for literally decades – not least the need to find and retain the right skills. But we now have a new government and a new imperative to finally turn the dial and transform the sector into a shape capable of meeting the ambitious but never-the-less vital targets set by Labour.

So let’s hear more. My guest today is Mark Farmer founder and chief executive of Cast Consultancy and a font of knowledge when it comes to accelerating constructions performance and specifically the challenges of kickstarting the nations lack-luster housebuilding performance.

Resources
Cast Consultancy
The Farmer Review - Modernise of Die
Independent Review of Building Safety - Dame Judith Hackett 2018
Government announces planning overhaul - 2024
Labour manifesto
Kings Speech background briefing